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For months, the online world has been a-twitter about the growing popularity of social media — and using Twitter, Facebook and other outlets for marketing.

About 120 women from around the state attended the Women Business Owners of Prince George's County Business and Wellness Conference last month to learn about social marketing, among other topics of the day.

"If you're not on board with a strategic plan on how to use social media to promote your business, it's time," said Terri Holley, owner of Momentum Health and Life Coaching in Spencerville. Holley runs a blog, Creative Blog Solutions, on social media strategies. "It's not so much about pushing a message as engaging people on what you have to offer."

Holley said social marketing's greatest advance for business owners is boosting their name, and consequently their business, to the top of the page when people search online for products and services. People who have identities through multiple areas of social media — such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, the image-oriented Flickr or the business-targeted LinkedIn — will come up more often during searches, she said.

"My days of passing out fliers are over," said Leslie Greene, vice president of Girls in Real Life Situations of Suitland, who attended the workshop.

Blogs also let businesspeople communicate more conversationally than with the static electronic business-card feel of Web pages, Holley said. She said businesses can use social media to learn about customers, have customers spread their business names around and build relationships with their clientele to keep them coming back. Linking a more personable business side through blogs with Twitter updates on new service offers and a Flickr account to showcase products and satisfied customers allows owners to take full advantage of social marketing opportunities, she said.

"To not use these tools while your competitors are … I just don't want you to be left behind," Holley said.

But some business owners still have concerns about the advantages of social marketing versus the disadvantages, mostly concerning safety.

Angela Thomas, owner of Embodiment Message in Hyattsville, said she has issues with forming relationships with customers via social media, having known a fellow masseuse who had a bad experience that way. Thomas uses social media mainly for personal needs.

Thomas said business owners need to ensure that their preferred social marketing tool matches their profession, saying that chatty styles and image galleries would not suit her business.

Other women asked about the possibility of having someone else handle their social marketing for them, arguing they spend so much time managing the business that they do not have any to spare for blogging. Another concern was negative messages left by unsatisfied customers.

Holley responded to the latter, saying owners can make the most of those situations by learning what went wrong, keeping in touch with the customer and thereby countering future bad publicity.

Holley advised business owners considering jumping into social marketing to first learn which social media venue their key market prefers, decide what the business wants out of social marketing and then figure out ways to contribute to the conversations.

Diane Cole Stevens, CEO of Cole Stevens Salon & Day Spa in Greenbelt, said social marketing appeals to her because her company typically sends out e-mails but she is not sure if she is using the latest techniques.

A related conference workshop also taught business owners how to use e-mail service providers to maintain customer lists and connect with clients two or three times a month.

The key to social marketing is not simply getting people to come to events or buy a product but to remember a company's name the next time they need a service, said Gina M. Watkins, regional development director for e-mail services provider Constant Contact of Waltham, Mass.

"It's about keeping you top of mind," Watkins said.